Meaford Hall in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England is a 17th-century country house at
Meaford, near
Stone, Staffordshire
Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Stafford (borough), ...
. The
River Trent
The Trent is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midland ...
runs through the estate's meadow. On the river was one round and one three-sided half-turret.
It is a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
that reached as much as 156 feet long by 45 feet wide with a basement, ground floor and second floor.
The hall consisted of two buildings with a chamber, work room and bedroom. The basement included a deeds room,
wine cellar
A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control system. ...
, two beer cellars and dispense cellar.
The estate was founded in the 8th century and acquired by William Jervis of Chatcull in the late 17th century and remained the seat of the Jervis family for almost 250 years.
It played a role in
The 'Forty-Five'
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took p ...
rebellion by the
Young Pretender
Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...
,
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...
. Swinfen Jervis received 70 soldiers and awaited an engagement that never occurred.
It was the birthplace of
Admiral John Jervis, later 1st Earl St Vincent, hero of the defeat of the Spanish at the
Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797.
The Hall was much extended and modernised by Lady Forester, daughter of
Edward Jervis Jervis, 2nd Viscount St Vincent
Edward Jervis Jervis, 2nd Viscount St Vincent (1 April 1767 – 25 September 1859) was a Viscount in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Early life
Jervis was born Edward Jervis Ricketts, the second son of William Henry Ricketts and Mary Jervis. ...
in the late 19th century but was sold in 1943. Thereafter it was variously occupied by the United States Forces, and by a school and latterly it served as the headquarters of the building company Percy Bilton Ltd. Following a period of unoccupation and neglect the Hall – much reduced in size
– was restored by a new owner and was reopened on 14 February 1997, the bicentenary of the Battle of Cape St Vincent.
At some point it was acquired by Craig Johnson, who undertook a number of developments, including addition of a leisure suite.
In April 2008 Johnson was one of 21 people to be jailed in connection with a £138m
VAT
A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...
carousel fraud
Missing trader fraud (also called missing trader intra-community fraud or MTIC fraud) involves the theft of Value Added Tax (VAT) from a government by fraudsters who exploit VAT rules, most commonly the European Union VAT rules which provide th ...
, with the defendants sentenced to a total of 133 years – one of the largest thefts from public funds that has been brought to court after a Customs investigation. In November 2008, Johnson was ordered to repay
HMRC
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£26m, with £8m due within 12 months from the sale of Meaford Hall.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Stone Rural
Stone Rural is a civil parish in the Borough of Stafford, Staffordshire, England. It contains 39 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, a ...
*
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
References
Heritage Gateway: architectural description of listed building. Original 18th century building Heritage Gateway: architectural description of listed building. 19th century Hall
External links
{{coord, 52.9179, -2.1668, type:landmark_region:GB-STS, display=title
Grade II* listed buildings in Staffordshire